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Fewer German car registrations

June 4, 2013

Germany's motor vehicles authority has reported a steep drop in new car registrations in Germany. The figures suggested that an interim rise recorded earlier in the year had not been sustainable.

https://p.dw.com/p/18jM2
Heavy traffic on German autobahn (ddp images/AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Image: AP

The German car market shrank at a near double-digit rate in May, the national motor vehicles authority in Flensburg, KBA, reported Tuesday.

It said new registrations fell by 9.9 percent year-on-year to just over 261,000 cars added to Europe's biggest vehicles market. Registrations dropped by 8.8 percent for the first five months of the year as compared to the same period in 2012.

The May decline indicated that the moderate rise a month earlier was little more than a fluke attributable to two extra working days over the previous year's month.

Germany: slow progress on e-mobility

Mixed picture

Porsche was the only German brand to log growth in May, with 6.1 percent more cars registered in the country. Among the biggest losers were Opel and Smart, with declines of 16.3 and 13.5 percent respectively.

With a growth of 72.7 percent over the same month, Mazda was one of the few winners in a contracting market," the Japanese company said in a statement. Only Jaguar proved to be an even more successful importer, posting a 112.6-percent surge in May.

The motor vehicles authority noted that cars with green technology are gettinmg more popular, with electric car registrations up 79 percent year-on-year and hybrids marking a 46.3-percent jump in May.

hg/ng (Reuters, dpa)